| Notes |
- "Patrick came over to America in abt 1740 with his sister, Jean and her husband John Knos.
They came over in a sail vessel. the winds being unfavorable, they were 3 months on the ocean running short of water and provisions. It is said that Patrick wore a pair of new buckskin pants that were rather tight for him when he left Ireland, but lapped over considerable when they landed in America.
Patrick reared a large family of children. Three of the son's names were William, Robert and Joseph. Robert lived near Cool Springs. He was Mrs. Adams grandfather. One of the daughters of Patrick Gracey and her babe were scalped by the Indians. His daughter, Eleanor, married a Templeton. Their son, Gracey Templeton, lived to be 94 years in age. Two of the daughters lived in the North Carolina mountains near Pleasant Gardens. One of them married a Logan; the other a Cashion. One of the Logan daughters married a Greelnee of Turkey Cove.
He settled near the headwaters of Back Creek in what was then Rowan County (now Iredell), NC some 3 miles northeast of Mooresville. And ended his days there in 1810 at the extreme age of 110.
Mrs. Alexander says of him, 'I remember to hear my father say that Patrick Gracy rode horseback a distance of six miles to visit his daughter, my grandmother, just six weeks before he died. He must have been a remarkably strong man to have made the journey on horseback at such an advanced age.
He was a great lover of coffee, which was considered a luxury in those days. His daughter would always try to give him coffee when he would visit her, and on handing back his cup for a second time, he wuold exclaim as the cup was being filled nearly full 'that's a vast, that's a vast, Nellie'. He had the Irish brogue of course. He was a good man. Bibles were very scarse in those days, so he often would take his bible and go among his neighbors reading the scriptures to them.
He was a member of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, and brought his certificate of membership with him. When he presented it to the pastor of the church at Centre, Dr. McRae, he pronounced it all right.
It is said that when Patrick Gracy was buried, they had to take axes and cut out the trees to make a road to the graveyard, there being only paths.
The following is the inscription found on his tombstone in Centre graveyard near Mooresville.
Since the above was written we have uncovered more. Patrick Gracey's mother, Jean Sinclair, was a relative of the mother of John Knox, the Reformer, who was a Sinclair. Joseph Gracy, one of the sons of Patrick Gracy, moved to East Tennessee. Some of his descendents now live in Clarkesville, TN."
(Source: The Knox Family, by Hattie S. Goodman - 1905)
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Abt 1700 - Yes, date unknown